Yunnan books now available!

Posted on March 25, 2013 by admin

Now available on Amazon

From the Tea Village (novel) — paperback or Kindle

Simply Yunnan (cookbook) — paperback or Kindle

After several years of work, my novel and its companion cookbook are now available for purchase on Amazon. In so many ways these books were made possible by your loving support. I truly hope you enjoy them both!

10 Ways to Help Launch These Books:

1. Buy a paperback copy — I’ll sign it next time I see you!
2. Give a Kindle version as a gift — you can request an “authorgraph” and inscription for e-books as well.
3. “Like” the Facebook pages for the novel and the cookbook.
4. Add the novel and cookbook to your Goodreads shelf and become a fan of my author page.
5. Leave honest reviews of the books on Amazon and Goodreads.
6. Give a paperback copy of From the Tea Village to a tween girl as a birthday/Easter/summer reading gift.
7. Share your opinions of the books by posting on Facebook or Twitter.
8. Make a Simply Yunnan meal for your family or friends and post pics on the Facebook page.
9. Suggest Tea Village as reading for your book club, small group, etc.
10. Host a Simply Yunnan party and cook a few dishes with your friends — I might be able to join your party if it’s in driving distance of Fort Worth (contact me for details).

Thank you for all the ways you support my writing! You are the best readers an author could ask for.

Cover Reveal for Yunnan Books

Posted on February 12, 2013 by admin

Introducing…

the cover artwork for the upcoming books by Rebecca D. Henderson

Everything’s more official when the design work is finished, right? The wonderful team at Streetlight Graphics put together the cover designs for both books, and I’m thrilled to be able to share their completed work with you today.

Both books will be available in paperback and Kindle edition through Amazon on 3-18-13. More details to come at that time. Until then, thank you as always for your support for these creative endeavors.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter (using the form in the left sidebar) to be the first to hear about upcoming dates, releases, and special offers.

If you use Goodreads, please take a moment to add my books to your Want to Read shelf. Click here for Tea Village and click here for Simply Yunnan.

And if you’re on Facebook, you can also “like” the books: here for Tea Village and here for Simply Yunnan.

Thanks!

The Next Big Thing

Posted on December 12, 2012 by admin

Today’s post is part of The Next Big Thing blog hop that’s been going on among writers for a few weeks now (I’m a little late to the game, been kind of busy with Thanksgiving and work and getting engaged and all). I was invited to participate by a Twitter friend and author, Kendra C. Highley, who I met through the fundraiser Crits for Water. Kendra’s Matt Archer: Monster Hunter is a fast-paced, action-filled, spooky adventure, and I’m looking forward to her Next Big Thing, the sequel Matt Archer: Blade’s Edge, at the end of the month.

My own Next Big Thing is the upcoming release in March 2013 of my first novel. My first novel. That sounds fantastic.

What is the working title of your book? From the Tea Village

Where did you get the idea for the book? A few years back, after reading Twilight in a 24-hour period and lamenting the loss of a day of my life reading such a poorly written book (sorry, Twilight fanatics, facts are facts), it occured to me that I could write YA lit just as well as some of the best-selling authors out there. I’m embarrassed to admit such an exceedingly arrogant yet naive sentiment now, though at the time it was just the impetus I needed to start writing a longer work than a blog post. Around the same time, I began interviewing my friend Lydia about her childhood in a Bulang village, and the idea for a series of books with her as the main character was born.

What genre does your book fall under? Young Adult (middle grade) multi-cultural set in Yunnan, China

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Well, the book takes place in rural Yunnan, so the actors would need to be Southeast Asian for the characters who are Bulang or other ethnic groups, with a few Chinese actors for the Han characters. I don’t watch a lot of Asian film, but I’ve admired Chow Yun Fat in a couple of movies — he would make a good Jiang Lao Shi. Beyond that, I’m at a loss!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? A Bulang girl, Ye Sun, struggles to reconcile her village background with the desire of her heart to study at a Chinese school, where she learns both her academic subjects and the depth of friendship in the face of tragic circumstances.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Self-published, baby!

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? I interviewed Lydia and transcribed and organized the notes of her biography from October 2009 to March 2010. I wrote the outline for this one-year segment of her story and began writing the first draft in July 2010 and finished it in October 2010.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I’m nervous about comparing Tea Village to other books, but before and during the writing and revising process, I read and was inspired by Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins, Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples, and Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story by Pegi Deitz Shea.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? My main inspiration was Lydia, the Bulang girl who lived in my home during her senior year of high school and became my dearest friend in China. As I wrote, I had young American girls in mind as readers, in particular my nieces Patience and Haley.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? This isn’t the book for someone looking for intense action or romance. It’s a glimpse into the heart of a girl in a land so different from the U.S. and other places in the Western world, yet the people of Yunnan have the same goals and desires of anyone anywhere in the world.

The point of this blog hop was to tag other authors who have upcoming book projects that they’d like to promote, but I honestly don’t know anyone else to tag who hasn’t already been tagged. Instead, I’m going to mention a few of my blog-writing friends who I love dearly and believe could write books of their own that would be well worth the read. These bloggers might not have any books in the works right now, but each of us has our own Next Big Thing — and I just want to acknowledge a few ladies who inspire me with their writing.

My good friend Jen Anderson blogged throughout last year on Jen’s Journey to 40 about her pursuit of a healthier lifestyle leading up to a milestone birthday, but lately she’s written more for the website Single Roots than for her own blog. I particularly enjoyed her recent article about transitioning into her new life as the single foster mother of four teenagers (and foster grandmother to a one-year-old!).

Roxie McCutcheon (who I met working in Yunnan many years back) started a fantastic new blog called Crunchy in the Panhandle where she shares tips with folks in her corner of West Virginia who are trying to eat local, organic, and whole foods. I like to call Roxie my whole foods guru — I call and text her with random questions about coconut oil and gluten-free recipes, and she’s always able to answer right away like the pro that she is, or at the very least point me to an online resource where I can find answers. Even though I live in Texas, her West Virgina blog has been a help to me.

Another Yunnan friend, Erin Kimsey, recently began blogging about her experiences transitioning from non-profit work in a small border town to working for the U.S. Foreign Service in Shanghai — what a change! Erin is insightful and intelligent, and I appreciate her perspective on a variety of subjects.

Last but not least, Gillian Schweighardt is a friend I met in Washington who is now living in Vienna. I absolutely love reading about her family’s adventures and her thoughts on life. Her stories and reflections challenge and encourage me while making me chuckle — a great combination.

So, there you have it. Thanks for playing along and letting me ramble about my Next Big Thing.

Two Book Launches in March!!

Posted on December 6, 2012 by admin

I’ve never used an exclamation mark in the title of a blog post, but this news is pretty darn exciting.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not just one, but two books will be ready for release in March 2013 — my middle grade novel From the Tea Village and the cookbook Simply Yunnan. Both books sprang forth from my years of living in Yunnan, China, and though they each stand alone, they also complement each other.

From the Tea Village

Ye Sun grew up in an ethnic Bulang village in Yunnan Province, but she now lives in the Chinese world of her boarding school. While other students decide to stay home after sixth grade, Ye Sun sticks with it and moves to middle school in the market town. Her friendships broaden, but she also faces more difficult subjects, an abusive teacher, and taunts over her faltering Mandarin. Just as she thinks the situation is at its worst, a harrowing accident turns her family — and her life — upside-down.

Simply Yunnan

Ten years of eating in Yunnan led to this cookbook. I want to share the simple recipes I’ve collected from friends and from trial-and-error recreating dishes from favorite restaurants. These are the dishes I like to cook to remind myself of towns where I lived, of people I miss — to remind me of places and moments wrapped up in flavors and textures. Simple ingredients. Simple technique. Simply Yunnan.

Look for more news on where to find print and e-book versions of both books to come in the days ahead. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter (using the form in the left sidebar) to be the first to hear about upcoming dates, releases, and special offers.

Thank you, friends!

Reading to Write

Posted on May 26, 2011 by admin

So, remember how I mailed all my boxes of books from Texas to Washington earlier this month?

I was so proud that I mailed the boxes as media mail and spent a lot (A LOT) less than I was expecting. As long as the box only contains books, cds, dvds — nothing that qualifies as first class mail — you get a special super cheap rate.

And as I’ve found out, your boxes may or may not actually arrive at their destination. Only 9 out of my 11 made it. My mom has received notices in the mail that one of the boxes ended up at the dead letter office in Dallas, one in Seattle. Somehow the paper with my address became separated from the box, and I didn’t put another paper with the address inside the box. (Do people actually do that? I guess I’ve proven that they should.) So these two sad boxes of books are sitting there, dead, unidentified, possibly lost forever.

The box in Dallas, I have no idea at this point which books are in it. The one in Seattle, I can remember a few. I’m hoping I remember enough of them to fill out a claim form — and I’m hoping that I wrote my name inside the flyleaf of a few of them as proof of identification.

One of the books I know is in the Seattle box is Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. When I first read it a few years back, it challenged me to savor the words, sentences, paragraphs I read. Read good writers as a form of study, as a way to hone my craft. Read to absorb what is lovely, what is powerful, what is effective about great writers’ use of the English language.

When I was working on difficult passages in my manuscript about Lydia, I would pick up the novel Sold by Patricia McCormick. Her subject matter is different from mine, but I’m inspired by her insight into the mind and heart of a young girl who left her village. She helps me know how to show, not tell, the choicest details.

Sometimes when I’m working on an essay, I’ll look at something by Donald Miller or Annie Dillard. Lately the poetry of Wendell Berry gets my creative wheels turning, even if I’m not working on poetry. Just mulling over the words, their sounds, their meanings helps me think more like I am truly a great writer myself.

Hopefully my books aren’t really dead, either in Dallas or Seattle.

Postscript: After writing this, I sorted through a few of the boxes in my living room and found Reading Like a Writer. Which is good news for that book — it’s not dead. But bad news for my memory — am I going to be able to list correctly any of the other books for the claim form?

Beta Readers

Posted on May 5, 2011 by admin

I didn’t know what a beta reader was until a few months ago, and now I suddenly need them.

Beta readers are the people who read a manuscript with an eye for giving constructive criticism to the writer at a later stage of the draft process. Each writer may be looking for different types of feedback, whether it be general or specific. Some may ask their beta readers to proofread for grammar and punctuation. Others, like me, need help with the broader picture of the story.

I’m a pretty compulsive proofreader, and I cringe to think of asking people to read something of mine with typos. I would rather fix those mistakes myself and get help with the things that are more difficult for me to see because of my personal connection to the story.

For this draft of my current manuscript (the young adult novel I’ve written based on my friend in China), I’ve enlisted a few beta readers to go over my novel and answer questions along these lines: Do you notice any inconsistencies? Are there characters you want to know more about? How do you feel about the descriptions of the setting? Is it enough? Do you want more? Are there sections where you find yourself thinking “this is dumb” or “I’m bored” or “I don’t want to keep reading”? How do you feel about the ending?

I hear that some people connect with other writers through Twitter or blogs or wherever and help each other out as beta readers. I considered that, but when it came down to making a decision, I felt like I knew enough people already who I trusted to give me good feedback. My mom is not one of those people. She is reading the book (or at least I gave her a copy under coercion — now that you made me hand it over, are you actually reading it, Mom?), but since she pretty much loves every word I’ve ever written, I didn’t think she was the best candidate to give honest criticism as a beta reader.

My readers are in Washington, New York, Oklahoma, West Virginia. Some are adults, some are teens. Some have known me for years, some have just met me. Some know China well, some have never visited. I think I’ve got a good mix.

Now that the book is in the hands of others, I’m feeling the anxiety of not knowing what to expect and of fearing the worst. To me, the worst is that the book is boring. I know that I have technical skill in putting together sentences that work. But this is the first time for me to put together a story this big, and I just hope that I got all the components of a good story right.

Second Draft

Posted on April 5, 2011 by admin

With all of my excitement over my trip to Oregon and the Badger Mountain 15k, I didn’t post an update on my book progress in March, as I should have.

The good news is…drum roll…I now have a second draft of the first book in the young adult novel series I am writing.

To catch you up, I finished the first draft in November last year, spent the holidays with my family, moved to Washington in January, and set a goal to finish the first round of revisions by April 1. You can read a more thorough recap of my writing progress here.

The first three or four chapters of revisions were brutal. It involved more restructuring, rearranging, and flat out rewriting than I had envisioned. February was a big freelance month for me, so I got a bit bogged down in other projects and was feeling pretty discouraged about my progress with the novel. At one point I decided there was no way I would meet my April 1 goal, it was all hopeless anyway, why am I even bothering to write this book in the first place, I should probably just quit.

But then somewhere around Chapter 7 or 8 of the 14 chapters in the book, I realized that I had finally hit a writing stride in the original writing process. (If you’ll remember, the first version didn’t even have chapters — what was I thinking?! Putting in the chapter divisions was my first task in revising this monster.) The last several chapters were much tighter, better written, needed much less revising. I ended up finishing the second draft at the end of the third week in March, just in time to drive to Seattle and pick up Erin for our Oregon trip. Perfect.

The second draft is also 50 pages longer than the first, which makes me happy. I fleshed out characters and scenes and feel much more satisfied with this version. Still not completely satisfied, but at least I no longer think I should just quit and never type another word.

Next step: one more pass through the entire manuscript on my own, then I’ll send it along to two or three readers with critical eyes to give me their opinions. Hopefully by this summer (June? July? August?) it will be polished and ready to be seen by someone in the publishing world.

Telling Stories

Posted on February 1, 2011 by admin

A few days before I left on my drive up here to Washington, I sat down with a few Chin refugees from Burma to interview them about how they ended up in Texas. I spent the day listening to their stories, typing notes, and thinking over the experience of conducting these interviews. During my last few years in Yunnan, part of my work involved driving a truck to remote villages along the Burma border to interview indigenous peoples about their language and culture and religion. I absolutely loved sitting in their homes and asking questions and hearing their stories. Now here I was, after a 90 minute trip through rush hour traffic in Dallas-Fort Worth that required a different set of driving skills than the mountains of Yunnan, talking to young people from the other side of the Burma border from where I had lived. A strange circle of events, wouldn’t you say?

My interviews in Texas were for a project I’m working on about the persecution of the Chin people by the Burmese government, told through the stories of several young refugees now relocated to the U.S. Listening to the things these kids went through, first in their villages, then as they endured the dangers of escape, and later in the terrible limbo of undocumented status in Malaysia, I was aware that they were entrusting me with something precious. They were telling me the horrific details not as a means of shocking me, but in the hopes that something good could come of others hearing their story.

I sat there in Starbucks with one guy, a skinny 20-year-old in jeans and a t-shirt, while he told me about being shot at and beaten, about surviving in a tiny boat on the ocean. I was overwhelmed with the absurdity of hearing this harrowing account while sitting there all warm and cozy and safe with our lattes.

And I was convinced once again of both the importance of telling stories and that helping people tell their stories is something I can do well. I’m not saying that to puff myself up or to try to sound important — I say it because it’s good for us to find the things we do well, and then to, um, do them well.

So for me right now that means getting up each morning, turning on my laptop, spreading pages of notes and drafts on the table around me, and telling Lydia’s story, the story of the Chin in Burma, and the story of how food insecure preschoolers in Wake County, North Carolina, are getting their tummies filled and learning healthy eating habits.

Book Writing Recap

Posted on November 18, 2010 by admin

Since I started this blog in the summer of 2008, the focus and the audience has changed somewhat. What started as a way for me to keep my friends and family posted on life and work in China has evolved into a combination of my travel diary for this year of transition, a chronicle of my progress in writing my first novel, and just a general outlet for musings on books I’m reading or anything else that is on my mind. The stats page for my site tells me that the number of readers has gone up a bit over the months (with a huge spike last week when two of the artists from the Love Tells the Story tour tweeted a link to my review on Twitter)—though, don’t get me wrong, this is still a rather small-time blog. I’m OK with that. Slowly and steadily I’m finding an audience for what I write, and I’m enjoying the time I have to focus more on writing than I ever have in my life.

Now that I’ve finished my first draft (you can read about that in “Happy but not Satisfied”), I thought it would be good to post links to a few past blog entries to recap what I’m doing during this year and how that came about. Some of you have read these before, but others may have missed them or may be new to the blog. Rather than rewriting a new summary of it all, it’s easier to point you in the direction of what’s already out there.

Recent Silence First mention of my wanting to write a series of books on Lydia’s life growing up in Yunnan.

Finishing Well The best explanation I’ve posted about how I came to the decision to leave China and start writing full time.

What to do with our talents A personal favorite essay, about glorifying God by using and enjoying our talents, which is my hope for this year and all my years.

The End of Idle Chatter How I stopped talking about writing and started (gasp!) writing.

Things I’ve Learned So Far About Networking A list of ways online networking has helped me (or not) in the process of telling Lydia’s story.

Texas to Alaska Why I went to the arctic to work on my book this summer, and why I am going to Washington in January.

Other People’s Thoughts: Rewriting Writing vs Having Written.

Alaska to Texas A summary of my two months writing in the arctic.

About Changes A clarification of my purpose in this year of travel and writing.

Happy but not Satisfied Celebrating the finish of my very rough first draft. Or my very first rough draft.

Happy but not Satisfied

Posted on November 2, 2010 by admin

Yesterday morning, I typed those two lovely words I’ve been dreaming of for months: THE END. My first draft of the young adult novel based on my friend Lydia is complete. It is a rough draft, indeed, but it is a completed draft. And for that, I am happy.

I am happy, but I am not satisfied. Several people I’ve talked to in the last couple of days have asked the inevitable question: “So, what’s next?” Months of rewriting and revisions, that’s what’s next. My goal when I started typing the first page of this draft on July 8 (just four months ago!) was to get the basic story and dialog down without spending too much time over-thinking tiny details. Just let the story flow, just type, just see where things go.

Meaning: I have a bit of a mess on my hands now. I have 220 double-spaced pages…and no chapter divisions. How could I divide the story into chapters when I didn’t even know for sure where it was going or how fast? I have some very clunky dialog, but at least I have the framework of the conversations that are important to the story. I have minor characters who are very likely called one name in the first half and a different name in the second half. I have Chinese and Bulang words that I haven’t taken the time to translate or explain. I have underdeveloped antagonists and overdeveloped cultural descriptions.

But I know all those things—knew them as I went along. I decided it would be easier for me to go back and fix things once I had a completed draft than it would be to get bogged down in correcting or elaborating or cutting away, only to get frustrated because my word count was moving too slowly, and risk getting overwhelmed and never finishing. I have more than a little editorial tendency in me, and I’m excited at the thought of attacking this draft with an eye for sharpening what isn’t strong enough, getting rid of what doesn’t work, and generally repairing this huge mess. I made tons of notes to myself as I wrote, and I’ll start going through and rewriting very soon.

One thing I’m more than satisfied with is my ending. I’ve struggled with writing solid conclusions since I was in grade school, and all along this process I’ve worried about how to have an emotionally satisfying ending to this chapter in Lydia’s story, but leave things open to tell the next part in a second book. Just in the last couple of days, the ideas started flowing, and I absolutely love the ending I wrote. Now I don’t face these revisions with the dread that comes from knowing my ending needs a major overhaul. Fine tuning, yes. Major overhaul, no.

I hope to finish up drafts two, three, four, however many it takes, by next summer and begin sending out query letters to agents soon after that. In the meantime, I’m also working to build up a freelance writing business. Lots of learning and writing and submitting and waiting and trying again, and I’m loving pretty much every minute of it.

Rebecca Henderson

writing, reading, living

Tag Archives: Lydia’s story